Amazon Brings Kindle Fire’s Killer Instant Video Feature to iPad (Wired)
On Wednesday, Amazon released an iPad version of its Instant Video app. The app accesses Amazon’s video library of over 120,000 movie and TV show titles, and makes the iPad the only mobile device other than the Kindle Fire to receive Amazon’s special brand of video love. VentureBeat The app goes a step further than Netflix by providing streaming access to movie and TV shows you’ve purchased or rented through Amazon’s online store. You also have the option to download those video purchases directly to your iPad for viewing offline. ars technica While the app gives you one additional viewing option for Amazon’s library of content for rent or purchase, it is definitely geared more toward users who want to stream content available via an Amazon Prime membership. The $80 annual fee not only gives you free shipping options and access to Kindle “library” items, it also allows you to access a fairly large library of streaming video. TIME/Techland Apple’s rules stipulate that it gets a cut of content sold from inside third-party apps, and linking to an outside site from within an app in order to sidestep such a payout is a no-no. That’s why you have to go to Amazon’s site directly first, pay for what you want to watch (or add it to your Watchlist if it’s a Prime title), then pull up your purchases and Watchlist content inside the app afterwards. Reuters Amazon.com is trying to get its digital music and video on as many gadgets as possible as the world’s largest Internet retailer replicates a strategy that paid off for its Kindle e-book business. The theory is that if customers can play and watch Amazon music and video on all their existing devices, they are more likely to purchase the content from Amazon rather than competitors like Apple’s iTunes and Netflix.

Employers in Illinois Can’t Ask for Facebook Passwords (AllFacebook)
Illinois Wednesday joined several other states around the country in the fight to keep Facebook login information private from employers. Gov. Pat Quinn signed what has become known as the “Facebook bill,” preventing employers in Illinois from asking for a worker’s password on social media sites. Mashable The developer of a Facebook app has gone public with a post claiming that Facebook executives tried to hire him because the company was building a similar app. While the idea of an “aqui-hire” might not sound bad to some, Dalton Caldwell, the CEO of App.net, charges that Facebook uses its heft to intimidate developers like himself rather than help build up the app community. AllThingsD Ethan Beard, director of platform partnerships at Facebook, announced on Wednesday via Facebook that he will soon leave the company. Shortly thereafter, platform marketing director Katie Mitic also announced her departure from the company. If that wasn’t enough, a third announcement came on Wednesday, as mobile platform marketing manager Jonathan Matus also announced his impending departure from the social networking giant.

Apple Gets Cozier With Twitter Integration, but Passes on Investment (VentureBeat)
The Twitter rumor mill was grindin’ away on Wednesday, and here’s another tidbit just fallen from the old grindstone: Apple had been in talks to invest in Twitter, but the deal is officially off the table. Said investment supposedly hinged on Twitter’s integration with Apple’s mobile operating system.

The I Files: Investigative Reporting Comes to YouTube, Launching with the BBC, The New York Times, Al Jazeera and More (The Next Web)
The Center for Investigative Reporting (CIR) has launched a new YouTube channel in partnership with some of the biggest media brands and broadcasters, offering a dedicated conduit for investigative news reporting. Funded by the Knight Foundation, The I Files will be curated by CIR and feature contributions from ABC News, BBC, The New York Times, Al Jazeera and the Investigative News Network, which consists of 60 nonprofit news organizations including the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting, the Investigative Reporting Workshop and the Center for Public Integrity CIR.

Twitter Political Index Shows How You Really Feel About Obama and Romney (SocialTimes)
In preparation for the 2012 presidential elections, social analytics company Topsy has collaborated with polling firms Mellman Group and North Star Opinion Research on a social media variation on the classic public opinion poll. Released Wednesday, the Twitter Political Index will provide a daily snapshot of how Americans feel throughout the campaign.

Salesforce’s Do Takes on Asana With New Deal Flow, Contacts Features (GigaOM)
After acquiring productivity app Manymoon and relaunching it as Do last year, the enterprise giant is set to announce Thursday that it is rolling out new contacts and deal flow management features that it believes will make Do more of a work collaboration platform for everyone — from individual consumers to small businesses to teams within big corporations. Through the new contacts management feature, which integrates with Facebook, Twitter, Gmail and other platforms, users can see the entire universe of all of the people they might collaborate with, as well as set alerts that remind them to reach out to specific people periodically or on certain dates.

Report: Yammer to Add Chat Feature (PC Magazine)
Enterprise social network Yammer, which was recently acquired by Microsoft, is testing a new chat feature that it plans to announce in the coming weeks. The new feature, first spotted by The Next Web, allows Yammer users to instant-message colleagues in their company network in real time.

10 Helpful Twitter Lists for Social Media Marketers (AllTwitter)
Twitter lists allow users to categorize their followers into different segmented lists based on a particular subject or theme. Here are 10 helpful Twitter lists to follow for news, updates and strategies concerning the social media marketing world.

Group Builds Twitter Path to Senators in Cybersecurity Act Fight (ZDNET)
Powered by an interactive tool deployed by the Electronic Frontier Foundation, opponents of the Cybersecurity Act of 2012 are filling the Twitter streams of U.S senators in a crowdsourcing move reminiscent of the outcry against anti-piracy legislation earlier this year. The tool, available on a site called Stop Cyber Spying, has users enter their zip code and click a button that says “Find my Reps.” Users are presented with a field to enter a tweet or use pre-crafted tweets addressed to their senator’s Twitter handle.

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